In life, change is the only constant. Our natural world exists in a state of flux and to survive all living things must evolve. This is equally true in the world of business.

Innovation is no longer a nice to have, it is essential to our success.

Over the last 100 years, we have seen unparalleled technological advancement. Every facet of our lives has been touched by innovation. But our journey is far from over.

Most of what we developed and relied upon to bring us where we are, is longer effective as a vehicle for where we need to go.

We changed the world and are now being asked to change ourselves.

The real difficulty, however, is not necessarily what we need to build, but why. Through our dogged obsession with making bigger, better and faster machines, we often overlooked the point of having them. And as Marshall McLuhan pointed out “we make the tools, now the tools make us”.

Our preference for science and technology as the foundation for understanding has birthed a world that values efficiency over elegance. Product over process. Data over dreams. And as such we now have instruments that influence us to think, act and become more like them.

But we’re not like them. We are emotional, unpredictable and temperamental. We feel, sense and intuit. We are spontaneous, dynamic and capable of unforeseen creativity in the most arbitrary of ways.

It’s time we started celebrating this. Not as a feel-good mantra but as a strategy for unlocking true innovation. As leaders, we must cultivate the creative development of our people and leverage our imperfection.

In a world driven by data, that calls us to find new meaning between the measurable things, the smartest thing we can do for ourselves and our organisation is to foster that which makes us human.

How confident are you with your creative capacity? How connected do you feel to the infinite mystery of your true nature? How supportive is your organisation to those who feel before they think?

Your next great innovation will not show up in sequence nor will it be the result of an anticipated outcome. It will emerge in the most unlikely of places. It will speak in a language that disregards standard procedure. And it will ask that you dance in order to receive the truth you so desperately seek.